Grand Teton National Park...buffaloes!

Dad and Mom

On Tuesday morning, August 28th, we had a slow start. Loading the car onto the tow dolly in the gravel proved wholly unsuccessful (ramps spun out, one got caught under the car, a neighbor came to our rescue, etc, etc). Yikes. After finally loading the car (on pavement), we met the parents at their hotel. We four sat around and chatted in the morning sunshine until after 11am, when we bade them goodbye and they headed for the airport. What a short trip, but we had so much fun with them!

Ken and I drove back into Yellow- stone via the west entrance, and through the park out the south end. Once again, as we made our way into the park we spotted a buffalo standing around chewing on the grass and another further up the road just relaxing in the sunshine. Ha! I love buffaloes!

Beyond the turn off for Old Faithful and along the seven miles of John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway toward Grand Teton National Park, we saw not one animal. No buffaloes, no moose, no elk, not even chipmunks. And the scenery had closed in on us with the skinny lodgepole pine trees lining both sides of the roadway, though we could occasionally see the mountains through them. We did cross the Continental Divide three times, grinding our way up the steep hills only to pick up substantial speed on the other side.

Jackson Lake in Grand Teton NP

As we entered the Grand Teton National Park, we began to notice the landscape open into large meadows and vast lakes. With the high temperature for the day near 92 degrees, we toe-dipped in beautiful Jackson Lake. The stunning Teton Mountains towered behind the lake in the distance with the afternoon sun casting them in shadow.

North Buffalo wildfire, started August 24, 2012

Ominously, we noticed a wildfire coloring the eastern sky with huge plumes of white and pink smoke. As we traveled south into the park, we could see the smoke billowing from at least three different spots just behind the hill. Yikes. In the meadow between us and the wildfire, however, we saw a huge herd of buffaloes. Driving the RV and with no turnouts near them, I couldn't stop to take their pictures. Boo. In any case, we were excited to see so many buffaloes all in one place on federally protected land, behind only a thin fence designed to discourage them walking from the roadway.

Pronghorn antelope, not far from the campground

As we approached the southern end of the park, we turned down the street to the campground and saw the familiar blob of cars on both sides of the road snapping pictures. The band of pronghorn antelopes browsing through the sagebrush had everyone enthralled. We took a few pictures of the crowd of them and they didn't even run away. Pronghorn, with the ability to run 65 mph to escape cheetahs, are the fastest land animal in North America, despite the fact that cheetahs have been extinct here for over 10,000 years. While we and the throng of other tourists watched them, they seemed content and wholly concerned with eating rather than escaping. Perhaps we humans looked as slow as we are.

The Grand Tetons

We set up camp at the Gros Ventre Campground, a very quiet and very dark park in the woods near the Gros Ventre River. How nice to enjoy both after all the horn-blowing from the trains traveling through Bozeman every night for a week. We settled in for dinner in the RV before making our way to Jackson, Wyoming for a few groceries and the obligatory ice cream cone from Dairy Queen. Nice.

John and Bartha Moulton homestead

In the morning, we took a different route out of the campground and down Mormon Row, an old, abandoned series of farm buildings constructed by homesteaders in the early 1900s. These spare properties comprised the tiny town of Grovont, originally settled in the 1890s, and were worked by three Moulton families as well as three other Mormon families.

Thomas Murphy homestead on Mormon Row

After digging miles of ditches from the Gros Ventre River for a crop irrigation system the group enjoyed the fruits of their labor in summer, but the winter proved much more difficult without a regular unfrozen water supply. According to the pamphlet, in 1927 a warm spring developed after a big flood and the Kelly Warm Springs provided year round water to the residents after that. But by the mid-1900s, the Mormon community's land was acquired as part of the Grand Teton National Park to curb development near the mountains. We certainly enjoyed the decaying buildings as a spectacular foreground to the impressive landscape.

A bit further north we toured the Cunningham Cabin, another abandoned homestead from the early 1900s bought out during the expansion of the park. J. Pierce Cunningham established the Bar Flying U Ranch here and worked the land to support his family between 1888 and 1928 when he sold out to John D. Rockefeller's Snake River Land Company. In 1925, a petition organized by Mr. Cunningham and Si Ferrin, and signed by 97 of the valley's struggling ranchers, sought a buyer who would consolidate all the ranches in the valley as a recreational area. A year later, the superintendent of Yellowstone at the time, Horace Albright introduced Rockefeller to the Jackson Hole area.

J. Pierce Cunningham homestead

Beginning in 1927, Rockefeller eventually purchased over 32,000 acres under his Snake River Land Company with the intention of donating it to the federal government for the expansion of the Grand Teton National Park. Infighting and bickering between recreational interests, big business and the park system led to a 15 year delay in accepting the donated land, finally pushed by Rockefeller's threat of selling the land on the open market. What a gift!

Jenny Lake

With the huge bison herd we saw the day before stuck in my mind, we drove north to see if we could find them again. We did, but we pledged to come back later in the day for pictures of them with the sun lower in the sky and hopefully not turning them to indiscernible blobs of dark matter. Grr. Still, how exciting!

We rounded the north end of the park road to head down the west side of the loop past the buffaloes. We pulled into Jenny Lake, a picturesque lake of cerulean blue water formed by a retreating glacier some 12,000 years ago. We hiked down the short path to the water's edge where we found small families bouncing through the shallows and taking pictures of one another. With the Teton Mountains much closer than on the east side of the park loop, we admired the stark crevices and serrated peaks across the lake. A few bits of snow could still be seen in the mountaintops, even in the end of August, though a roadside 'Glacier View Overlook' offers no such view anymore.

We headed back toward Jackson for lunch and found Bubba's Barbecue, a standard fare place with reasonable prices. Wandering around town, we popped into a couple of thrift stores and through the town square where we saw 4 gigantic arches of hundreds of elk antlers each. Yikes. That's a lot of shed antlers. According to the sign next to them, the Boy Scouts of America and employees of the nearby National Elk Refuge collected the antlers and assembled the arches in 1960. The scouts continue to collect the shed antlers each spring and then a huge auction is conducted in the town square to benefit the elk themselves, such as growing more natural grasses or improving irrigation on the refuge.

As we strolled the streets of Jackson, we saw hundreds of little businesses tucked into old storefronts, lending the town an 'Old West' feel. Some of the businesses are in on the act with western themed names, but virtually all are aimed at the tourist, preferably bearing cash. We continued walking along the wooden sidewalks and peeking in the windows of the stores until we slowly made our way back to the car.

On our way out of town, we stopped in at the Visitor Center where an exhibit about the elk refuge led us to an upper level and out a back door. On the patio overlooking the refuge lands we saw not one elk. Evidently they use the refuge in winter, gathering in a herd with as many as 5,000 to 7,000 elk. During summer they hide out in the mountains snacking and avoiding predators.

Coyote on the prowl

Although we saw no elk, we did see a coyote on the prowl for food. We watched as he stalked someone small in the tall grass until he finally pounced. Over and over the coyote stalked and pounced, though from our vantage point, we didn't see that he actually caught anyone in the process. Inside the visitor center we read that coyotes feed on rodents, so we figured statistically he'll eventually catch something.

North Buffalo Fire

As we headed back north and with the sun lower in the afternoon sky, we noticed the wildfire had increased in size. A memo on a placard across the street from the buffaloes, posted by the National Park Service, mentioned that the fire had consumed over 8,500 acres of land in the 4 days since it had started. In such a remote area, however, nothing was being done to actually put the fire out and only a line on the north end was being held by firefighters to protect 'valuables' (probably homes). All through out the parks we have read signs and brochures proclaiming the importance of natural fires to the regeneration of forests and the consumption of thick undergrowth that inhibits both flora and fauna. The fire suppression policies of the park system's first 100 years were determined to actually undermine the forest's ability to renew itself naturally, in essence choking out some species of plants and trees as well as animals.

Horses

Buffaloes!

Some of the buffaloes were gathered near the fence and rest of them were scattered across the giant meadow in which they were snacking and napping. With sheer delight, we crossed the road and took pictures of them on the other side of the spindly fence, hoping we wouldn't spark a stampede or a goring. Fortunately neither occurred. They seemed content to ignore us as we (I) giggled with glee at all of them.

More buffaloes!

A quick estimate put the entire herd at around six or seven hundred, though there may have been more. Snacking and napping near the buffaloes was a band of pronghorn antelopes, probably 25 or 30 of them. And across the street, near the car, a big group of horses stood at the fence, perhaps hoping for something tastier than the grass they were chewing.

With the evening coming, we headed back to the RV for dinner and happy hour and then worked on a crossword puzzle until the light of the moon was all the light left. What a fabulous day.

Montana...big sky country

Sunset from the Bear Canyon Campground

On Sunday, we rested. After such an active day at Yellowstone National Park the day before, we spent the morning catching up on laundry and such. We met the parents for lunch at Famous Dave's again (naturally) and then stopped at a thrift store or two before we took a dip in the hotel's pool in the afternoon. In the evening, Ken made us all a nice dinner and we enjoyed happy hour while watching the beautiful sunset from the campground. Nice.

On Monday, with renewed energy and a desire to return to Livingston (and the Montana Rib & Chop House for lunch again), we made our way there. After another fantastic meal we toured the Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County. While Ken and I trudged up the three flights of stairs in the old schoolhouse building, Mom and Dad enjoyed the company of the museum's director, Paul Shea, who regaled them with stories about each of the interesting pieces of historic machinery in the museum's backyard.

Yellowstone Gateway Museum

Ken and I saw exhibits about the area now known as Park County, including the famous Yellowstone Trail, a historic national highway that crossed the country from Plymouth Rock (in Massachusetts) to Puget Sound (in Seattle). Beginning in 1912, the Yellowstone Trail was the farthest north of four transcontinental highways through the country and the only one conceived through a grassroots effort, beginning with J.W. Parmley of South Dakota. Eventually the route desired between destinations within South Dakota expanded to include a road to the new Yellowstone National Park. Through his and other small business leaders' lobbying efforts, a series of local roads were improved and marked from Puget Sound to Plymouth Rock to become the Yellowstone Trail.

Replica of homesteader's cabin

We also learned about the development of Montana through the Homestead Act of 1862, whose subsequent acts in 1902, 1906 and 1909 increased the number of homesteaders in the state by allowing irrigation, use of national forest land, and larger homesteading parcels, respectively. The 1912 act decreasing the amount of time required to prove up the land also led to the establishment of more homesteads, which significantly increased the development of remote areas of the country, specifically the previously less-desirable high desert areas of Montana.

In another room of the museum we learned the Yellowstone River flows through the Livingston area and has supported humans here for over 11,000 years, long before the Lewis and Clark expedition arrived in 1806. The discovery of the area by Lewis and Clark was described in Clark's journal entry from July 15, 1806 at 2pm, "Struck the Rochejhone (Yellowstone) one and a half miles below where it passes out of the Rocky Mountains. River 120 yards wide, bold, rapid, and deep."

Upstairs we toured through the Native Cultures room, an exhibit designed by the Apsaalooke (Crow) Nation people. The displays centered on the tribe's continued friendship with the U.S. Government following the 1825 Friendship Treaty, as well as on the importance of the buffalo to the Crow people's culture. We read quite a bit about the buffalo's near extinction at the hands of white fur traders in the late 1800s and the reintroduction and protection of the species since the early 20th century.

Exhibit of women's roles in Montana

The last room in the museum covered an exhibit about women's roles in the success of Montana, especially as teachers in one-room schoolhouses in rural areas. Today, according to the display, 63 of the remaining 200 active one room schoolhouses in the country are found in Montana. Fascinating!

We returned to the main level where the guide at the front desk directed us to the display of coaches and such in the museum's backyard. We wandered out there and saw an original sheep wagon, basically a very early version of an RV designed in 1884 by a Wyoming blacksmith specifically for sheepherders to use out in the field while tending to their sheep. With cloth windows that roll up, a little wood stove nailed to the floor (and vented through the roof) and a platform bed, the sheepherder could be relatively comfortable for long stretches.

Urbach Schoolhouse
with first mechanized roadgrader

Yellowstone Park Co. coach

Nearby in the garage stood an original Yellow- stone Park Co. coach used to bring tourists to the park from Livingston. (According to the museum's director, though, the coach has been painted the wrong shade of yellow and will eventually be painted Yellowstone yellow.) Two other companies' coaches were also on display, a green one (Yellowstone Transportation Company) and a red one (Yellowstone-Western Stage Company), though only the Yellowstone Park Company continued to operate in the park until 1980.

Outside the garage, we saw the original Urbach Schoolhouse. Built in 1898, this was a great example of the one-room schoolhouse so popular in educating rural children at the turn of the century. The inside of the schoolhouse was decorated with donated items, like the original teacher's desk and the children's desks. One the wall we read an article about a mysterious explosion that occurred under the home of the Urbach's, resulting in the death of Mrs. Urbach followed shortly after by the suicide of Mr. Urbach in his intense grief. No one was ever apprehended for the crime and the shroud of mystery remains. Odd.

Yellowstone River with the 'sleeping giant' figure
barely visible in the middle of the mountains

Moose!

Mom and Dad had spent the entire time Ken and I toured the museum chatting with Mr. Shea about the exhibits and all things Livingston. He encouraged us to tour Sacagawea Park where the Yellowstone River flows through part of the town. So we headed there. The river is separated from the roadway by a large gravel berm on top of which the locals walk their dogs. I climbed up there and looked down the river and saw...a moose! She was standing in the river almost up to her chest munching on the river grasses. While Ken, Dad and Mom came over to see her, she nonchalantly walked up the embankment on the other side of the river from us and began chewing on a willow bush, tugging at the leaves and branches. Eventually she moved on, but we sure enjoyed watching her from our lookout.

Magpies enjoying the shade next to Yellowstone River

A man out walking his little pup mentioned that it is unusual to see a momma moose without her baby, but for all the time we watched her, no baby moose appeared. Perhaps she had stashed him safely in the bushes. In any case, this fellow also pointed out Mt. Baldy behind the river. The peaks and valleys to the left of Mt. Baldy form a 'sleeping giant', complete with a side view of his face, chin, neck and chest. Sure enough, as soon as we looked in that direction, we could easily make out the giant. Cool!

We headed back to the RV for happy hour and to enjoy the cool breeze coming in the windows. For dinner, the MacKenzie River Pizza Company in downtown Bozeman fit the bill. With great service and tasty pizza, we were stuffed, with plenty for the next day's lunch. We parted company with the parents and returned to the RV for what little remained of the evening. What a super day!

Yellowstone National Park...day 2

Old Faithful

Buffalo!

On Saturday, August 25th, we met Mom and Dad at the hotel and drove to Yellowstone National Park, opting again for the west entrance. We had tackled the northern portion of the park on Thursday and hoped to see the sights of the southern and western end on this trip. And, like our other trip, we saw a buffalo on the side of the road shortly after entering the park. Sitting down in the grass enjoying the warm sunshine, this one, too, ignored us and our cameras.

With Dad at the helm (so I wouldn't unnecessarily cut into happy hour at the end of the day with additional sightseeing), we drove straight to the Old Faithful Lodge, where we found the eruption predictions helpfully displayed on the front counter. We opted for the cafeteria for lunch and sat near some giant windows in the dining room awaiting the next eruption of the geyser, estimated to blow at 1:04pm. Apparently, Old Faithful erupts every 50-127 minutes, with a height between 106 and 184 feet, according to the park brochure, caused by a narrowing in the plumbing underground that forces the steam and boiling water upwards.

Old Faithful Lodge

Faithfully, at just after 1pm, as Ken and I stood with the hordes of people crowding the boardwalk around the geyser, Old Faithful began spewing out water over 100 feet in the air. The display went on for about a minute or two before it slowed and the spray gradually shortened. Within a few seconds after the end of the performance, the boardwalk had emptied of all the tourists.

We found Mom and Dad watching from only a short ways back, so we joined them in the lodge for an ice cream cone. The Lodge, built in 1923, is a sprawling log building with a huge hearth in the center of the main hall adjacent to the lobby. A large gift shop, cafeteria and several small concessionaires encircle the hall, with tourists from all over mingling together for lunch or snacks. We sat at the large window overlooking the now calm Old Faithful and enjoyed our yummy frozen yogurt cones.

Cliff Geyser and Iron Spring Creek

Bubbling cauldron of fun

We continued northward and stopped at the Black Sand Basin, so named for the black obsidian sand found at the site. Safely above the steaming pools of water and the gently flowing Iron Spring Creek, we saw several interesting geothermal features. Closest to the parking lot, Mom and Dad saw a calm pool of water suddenly become the violent Cliff Geyser, spewing water up and into the creek next to it.

Black Sand Basin

Bacterial mat near the boardwalk

Meanwhile, Ken and I, on the opposite side of the basin, found the colorful Rainbow Pool and Sunset Lake. The thermophiles (tiny microorganisms at the water's edge) paint the pools' drainage and runoff with brilliant oranges and yellows. We wandered back toward the Cliff Geyser and watched it erupt spectacularly for a few minutes before heading up the road.

Sapphire Pool

Mustard Spring

 Just north of the Black Sand Basin, we discovered the Biscuit Basin, so named for the rock biscuits thrown violently out of the Sapphire Pool four days after the 1959 earthquake nearby that registered 7.5 on the Richter Scale. The pool is an otherworldly color of clear blue with ledges that disappear into the earth.

Runoff from Sapphire Pool

As we wandered around the Biscuit Basin along the boardwalks, we also saw Mustard Spring, a steaming, bubbling spring of scalding water with various shades of pinks and oranges around its edges. According to the park brochure, hot springs are similar to geysers but without the restriction underground that forces the boiling water violently to the surface where it explodes in a spray of water. Many of the springs we saw, like Mustard Spring, are calmer than geysers but still extremely hot.

Excelsior Geyser Crater

Continuing on, we came to the Midway Geyser Basin, another area filled with fascinating thermal features. While Mom waited patiently in the car watching an osprey fly overhead, Ken, Dad and I hiked up the steep boardwalk toward the Excelsior Geyser and Turquoise Pool.

Grand Prismatic Spring

The Excelsior Geyser Crater was formed after several eruptions blew apart the constricted plumbing underground, resulting in a beautiful blue pool of boiling, steaming water. The cliff edges around the crater resulted from the infrequent but angry explosions, last occurring for 46 straight hours in 1985. We also learned that Excelsior Geyser's constant outflow of between 4000 to 4500 gallons of water (at 199 degrees) per minute empties into the nearby Firehole River.

Opal Pool

Just up ahead, we saw the Grand Prismatic Spring, a huge rainbow-colored area with the 200 foot wide spring at its center. Like the Excelsior Geyser, the spring was also covered in steam as a result of its constant 160 degree temperature, and as we walked past it we could feel the intense heat. The entire basin is heated by magma deep below the ground's surface. As the rainwater and snow leak into the fissures of the rocks underground, the water is heated by the magma of an active volcano. When the superheated water bubbles out of the ground, the minerals suspended in it accumulate into various rock formations at the pool's edge and into large flat crusts as the water makes its way to the Firehole River.

Great Fountain Geyser between eruptions

White Dome Geyser

We returned to the car and drove through the Lower Geyser Basin along Firehole Lake Drive where we saw enormous terraces of crusty mineral deposits around the Great Fountain Geyser (which didn't erupt while we were there). With eruptions occurring only every 9 to 15 hours, we didn't stick around to wait for it, though its extensive terraces hinted at a huge display to come for those with the time and patience to do so.

Hot Cascades

Just down the road we saw the 12 foot tall mound of White Dome Geyser (which also didn't erupt during our visit). The park's largest mound was formed by the geyser's cone-type eruptions that spew the water into the air at up to 30 feet.

Steady Geyser

Young Hopeful Geyser

While Ken, Dad and Mom waited in the car, I trooped around the boardwalks near the Hot Cascades and Steady Geyser, an area filled with boiling pools of water and runoff streaming down a short embankment covered in orange and black bacterial mats.  I walked toward the other end of the boardwalk and saw the constant bubbling of Steady Geyser, a low roiling boil coming from two holes in the mineral crust.

Artesia Geyser in between eruptions

Across the parking lot I wandered along the boardwalk to the Young Hopeful Geyser, a small steady spout near the larger and more spectacular Artesia Geyser whose eruptions spewed water about 4 feet in the air. The pretty dark reds and blacks surrounding Artesia Geyser were truly unique as most of the thermal formations I saw were cloaked in deep oranges.

Silex Spring

From there, we headed next to the Fountain Paint Pots of the Lower Geyser Basin. A mile long loop of boardwalk began at the parking lot and took us past a wide variety of geothermal features including hot springs, mudpots, steam vents (fumaroles) and geysers. Our first formation was the brilliant blue Silex Spring, a deep spring of clear water at close to 200 degrees with the familiar runoff in a variety of rainbow colors. We enjoyed its beauty a little while before trudging up the hill to the Fountain Paint Pot.

Fountain Paint Pots

A fumarole (steam vent)

The Paint Pot resembled, quite literally, boiling paint. A giant cauldron of thin mud bubbling and splorting at the surface, we were immediately enchanted with the mudpots. With a color somewhere between milquetoast and pink-beige, the unique geothermal formation was truly interesting. We were mesmerized.

Red Spouter as a fumarole

The entire area of the Lower Geyser Basin changed following the 1959 earthquake at Hebgen Lake, about 30 miles northwest. Much like the glacial gravel in Valdez, Alaska that collapsed during an earthquake in the 1960s, the Lower Geyser Basin is comprised of unstable glacial gravel that shook and vibrated during the earthquake. As a result, the features here changed and the ever-evolving Red Spouter developed where there had been only a grassy knoll. Red Spouter was a fumarole when we saw it, hissing steam from the dry hole in the ground. According to the park brochure, at different times of the year and depending on the amount of water, it is a muddy hot spring, a geyser, a mudpot or a steam vent.

Clepsydra Geyser

Jet Geyser

Further down the path, Ken and I saw the two active geysers, the short bubbling Spasm Geyser and the violent Clepsydra Geyser. We watched the steam and spray and turned to see Jet Geyser doing absolutely nothing. Hmm. We continued to the end of the loop and began searching for Mom and Dad who we found half way around the loop heading down the stairs toward the two geysers.

He's just a little guy!

Bottom of Minerva Terrace
at Mammoth Hot Springs

As we caught up with them, Mom revealed she found $10 stuck in the space between the stair treads. Nice! And just after that, we watched as the Jet Geyser began chortling and snorting its boiling water into the air a few feet...who knew! As we made our way slowly around the rest of the loop, we passed lodgepole pine trees bleached by the sun and hot water, frozen in place by the crust of the silica deposits. We also saw Celestine Spring, another deep blue pool of water, as we neared the parking lot. What an interesting group of fascinating formations all in the same small area.

Middle of Minerva Terrace

Minerva Terrace

As Dad drove us north toward Mammoth Hot Springs, I asked to see the Upper and Lower Terraces. Once there, I ran up the stairs and on the boardwalk paths to take in as much of the beautiful travertine terraces as possible while Ken, Mom and Dad waited patiently in the car. As I ascended the endless staircases, the stunning features of the terraces became increasingly more interesting and colorful.

Mound Spring

The intricate levels of Mammoth Hot Springs change naturally with the increase and decrease of groundwater in the area leaving behind dry shelves that resembled empty pie tart crusts. Nearing the Mound Terrace, a large rounded hill of mineral deposition, I noticed the water flowing out of Mound Spring and filling some of the little terraces near me. As I rounded the corner, I was dumbstruck by the beauty of the extremely colorful top portion of Minerva Terrace, whose orange, yellow and white layers resembled an elaborate cake overflowing with white icing. Wow.

Minerva Terrace at Mound Spring

I continued to the very top of the Upper Terraces until I could see the smoke-filled air clouding the mountains around the town of Mammoth Hot Springs beyond the flat top of the Main Terrace below me. I raced back down the 300 feet in elevation to the car, elated I had taken the time (and leg power) to see so much of the Mammoth Hot Springs area, whose delicate travertine formations quickly became my favorite features of the whole park.

Big Horn Sheep

Yard Art Elk!

As we drove out of the park, we saw three young bighorn sheep grazing on a hillside, and then a half dozen or so elk lounging in a front yard in Gardiner. Further on we caught sight of several herds of bison on farms, various stray elk mingling with farm animals and countless cows, horses and sheep along the beautiful stretches of ranch lands. Eventually we made it to dinner at Montana Rib & Chop House in Livingston where our friendly server, Amanda, took excellent care of us. After a super tasty dinner on the lovely patio under the clear blue sky of the evening, we retired to the RV and hotel, respectively. What a fantastic and extra fun day!